Technology
Best Places to Buy Contact Lenses Online (and Save Money)
In years past, scrounging together enough money to cover even a six-month supply of my contact lenses was a struggle. Many times I considered just wearing my glasses full-time because spending a few hundred dollars was too rich for my bank account.
If you wear contacts, you know how expensive they can be, even with vision benefits. And if you buy them from your eye doctor or local optical shop, you’ll likely pay the full retail value, which, again, can set you back a few hundred bucks.
Luckily, there are many online stores that offer every contact lens brand you can think of, often at discounted prices or with rebates to help you save some cash. We’ve rounded up some of the best places to buy contacts online below. I wouldn’t say that any one of them is better than the other, but by shopping around, you can get the most savings and find a store that lets you use your insurance to help offset the cost.
Note that before you shop, you’ll first need to get an eye health and contact lens exam from your optician or optometrist. An eye doctor can help you determine the best prescription lenses for your specific needs, whether that’s daily contacts, soft lenses, hard lenses, lenses for astigmatism or multifocal lenses. All of the stores on this list require a valid vision prescription from an eye doctor to dispense your contact lenses, and they won’t ship your order without one.
So, ready to ditch the frames and dive in? Here is where you can find contacts at an affordable price.
Scout by Warby Parker
Warby Parker doesn’t just sell affordable and stylish eyeglasses — the company sells contact lenses too. You can pick from Scout, Warby Parker’s own contact lens brand, or get contacts from Acuvue, Biotrue, Air Optix, Dailies and other major brands.
A three-month supply of Scout daily contacts (a total of 90 lenses) starts at $47, which is a good deal for daily contact lenses. Depending on where you shop and the brand you use, prices online can vary from $60 to $200. You can get a six-day trial pack of Scout contact lenses to see if you like them before committing to a full supply.
Depending on your vision insurance, you may be able to use your benefits to pay for your Warby Parker contacts purchase. If your insurance company doesn’t directly work with Warby Parker, you can instead file a claim with your insurance to be reimbursed for any qualified orders.
Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Personal story time: I found Lens.com too many years ago to remember now, and it has been my go-to for cheap contacts since. I keep coming back because its customer service is great and the prices are usually the lowest I can find on prescription contact lenses. It has an impressive selection of brands — including Acuvue, Air Optix, Dailies and Biofinity Toric for astigmatism — plus it takes returns and covers the cost of shipping unopened boxes back. ‘Nuff said.
Lens.com is an out-of-network provider for vision insurance, so you can’t use your benefits to directly pay for your order. However, you can submit the receipt to your insurance company for reimbursement (and always check with your insurance company to see what it covers).
Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
As one of the best-known contacts stores, 1800Contacts stocks all of the most popular brands, and you can even get hard contacts through its call center. One CNET editor praised the company for providing customer service that went above and beyond.
1800Contacts price-matches any competitor, so if you find a better price, you can let the company know and it will do its best to match it (with some restrictions).
Like Lens.com, you can text or email your contact lens prescription, which speeds up the ordering process. 1800Contacts also offers discount contact lenses for students and free shipping on all orders, and allows you to update your prescription through an online test (only available for adults between 18 and 55 years old). You can also buy colored contact lenses from 1800Contacts. If you need to exchange your unopened lenses for any reason, 1800Contacts will cover the shipping cost.
Accepts vision insurance with a valid prescription.
Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
A popular source for contacts among my fellow CNET editors is ContactsDirect, because it often sends out coupon codes to customers. It has a wide selection of lens type options, including multifocal lenses, colored contacts, soft contact lenses for dry eyes and toric lenses for astigmatism.
ContactsDirect offers returns on products that were purchased within one year if your eye vision changes and you need a vision correction from your doctor. ContactsDirect (and 1800Contacts) also sells contact lens solution.
Accepts vision insurance.
Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Eyeconic has a wide array of contact lens brands to choose from, including Acuvue, Air Optix, Biotrue by Bausch and Lomb and Extreme H2O. Like others on this list, it offers free shipping and free returns.
Accepts VSP, MetLife and Cigna Vision vision insurance.
Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET
Last but not least is GlassesUSA.com, which sells both contact lenses and glasses and will price-match other sellers. Like every other retailer on this list, GlassesUSA.com has all of the popular lens brands, including Acuvue, Biofinity and more, and offers free returns and free shipping on prescription lenses.
Accepts select insurance providers.
For the most part, yes. Disposable contacts will cost you more money in the long run over a pair of glasses. I’ve worn Acuvue Oasys for many years, and they average around $25-$40 for a box of 12 lenses. That box of 12 lasts me for three months (one lens per eye, and I toss those lenses every two weeks). That means I typically spend around $160 per year for contacts.
Depending on the brand your doctor prescribes, your contacts might cost less or more than that.
You can easily get a pair of glasses for around $100, and if you don’t need to change your prescription every year, you can wear those same glasses for as long as they work for you. Regardless if my vision changes or not, I still need to buy more contacts every year.
How to save money on contact lenses
Pro tip: Right after your contact lens exam, it’s almost always worth it to get a year’s supply of your current prescription. Regardless of whether you’re buying daily disposable contacts, monthly lenses or even multifocal contacts, buying in bulk will help you save money.
If your prescription changes sometime during that year, many of the retailers above will allow you to exchange unopened boxes with a new prescription. You don’t have much to lose by buying a full year supply. Though it can be a higher up-front cost, you’ll save money over buying one box at a time.
More health and wellness recommendations
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
For 90s kids, Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball was one of our first steps into anime and manga. It was Dragon Ball Z on Toonami that was The Show back in the day, and the franchise has gone on in the years since to produce countless games, spinoff anime, and films. With the upcoming Super Hero movie serving as the first film in four years, Toei Animation is going all out to make sure that this movie is a big deal.
Super Hero follows Piccolo (Toshio Furukawa in Japanese, Christopher Sabat in English) and Gohan (Masako Nozawa/Kyle Hebert) as they save the world from a new version of the Red Ribbon Army, a criminal organization that first popped up when Gohan’s father, Goku (Nozawa/Sean Schemmel) was a kid back in the original Dragon Ball, and who later returned in DBZ during the “Androids Saga.” With the film having released in Japan earlier this month, and set to hit other territories sometime in the next months, Toei has released a video of the film’s opening that gives a condensed version of the Ribbon story that’s run across the franchise over the years. Bur rather than simply present that footage as it originally was, Toei recreated it to fit the style of the film’s 3D animation.
If you’ve played Dragon Ball FighterZ, the film’s art style of mixing 2D with CGI will feel familiar, and it just looks awesome. Seeing the Androids and Cell in cleaner, crisper animation, even just for a moment, may bring back some memories. Beyond the movie meant to follow Super Hero, it’s clear what anime future awaits Dragon Ball, but here’s hoping that the next series, whenever it comes out, has equally gorgeous animation.
Thanks to Crunchyroll, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero will hit theaters around the world later this summer.
[via Comic Book]
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
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If you’ve been using Adobe Photoshop and you don’t want to leave your recent work visible on the opening Home page when you launch the app, you have a few options for clearing the list or hiding it. We’ll show you how.
How to Clear the Recent File List in Photoshop
To clear the recent photos list in Adobe Photoshop, first click “File” in the menu bar. Then select “Open Recent.” In the small menu that appears, select “Clear Recent File List.”
And that’s all it takes. Your recent file list has been erased, and you’ll no longer see the files you’ve recently opened in the File menu or on the “Home” screen when you first open Photoshop. But new files will still be added to the list when you open them. If you want to fix that, see the section below.
How to Hide the Recent File List in Photoshop
As you’ve seen above, it’s easy to clear the Recent File List in Photoshop. But if you open more files after that, you’ll see them in the list again. To get rid of the Recent File List—and hide the recent files from the “Home” screen, click “Edit” in the menu bar. Next, select Preferences, then choose “File Handling” in the menu.
When the Preferences window opens, look toward the bottom of the window and set the “Recent File List Contains” option to the number “0” (zero) using the text box beside it.
After that, click “OK,” and Photoshop will save your changes and close the Preferences window. From now on, you’ll no longer see the list of recently opened files in the File menu or on the Home screen.
But be aware: Photoshop still keeps track of recently-opened files, even if you don’t see them listed. If you change “Recent File List Contains” to another number other than 0, you’ll see recently opened files again.
RELATED: How to Learn Photoshop
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